Perfect
by Rauchan
Summary: Normal days with Inu-Yasha and crew...until Kagome starts to question Inu-Yasha about how much she looks like Kikyo.
1. Chapter 1

No, I don't own any Inu-Yasha characters...all rights to Rumiko Takahashi...yadayada...you know the drill.

*** = different time period/place

Read and review! ^____^;; my first fic, be nice! XD

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Inu-Yasha stood next to a stone well and craned his neck over the top, yelling at a girl who had just jumped down the well. 

"See you in two days!" yelled Kagome, the girl that was now on the other side of the well.

"You had better come back in two days, you hear?! Don't make me come after you!" Inu-Yasha yelled back.

"Oh Inu-Yasha, lighten up already," said a small, boyish voice.

"Hmph. Shut up, Shippo," Inu-Yasha shot back, pouting. He walked off into the forest and sat beneath a tree in full bloom. It was spring-time, and the smell of flowers floated through the air.

"Where'd she go, anyway?" asked Shippo.

"That dumb math-em-at-ics stuff," he said, quite disgusted. He folded his arms in front of his chest. "I keep telling her that if she stayed here, she wouldn't have to do these 'exams'. She told me herself she doesn't enjoy them, so why she is so eager to leave and take them is beyond me." 

Shippo sighed sadly. "Now that Kagome's gone, I'm stuck with you for two days."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

Inu-Yasha grabbed the little fox demon by the tail and held him in the air.

"Hey! Lemme go!"

"You know, I don't ask for company, so I don't understand why you're complaining," Inu-Yasha said, sighing as he let Shippo go.

"I wish Kagome were here," Shippo muttered, keeping his distance from Inu-Yasha's grasp.

***

Kagome carefully climbed out of the well and entered her own time, heaving the heavy backpack from her back. She dropped it on the ground with a thud when the door of the shrine opened.

"Kagome!" said her brother happily.

"Hey Sota, what's up?" Kagome said, carrying her bag again and walking up into the house.

"Nothing. Grandpa just finished telling your friends that you have SARS is all."

"Grr! GRANDPA!" shouted Kagome as she entered the house. "Can't you just say I have a cold?!"

"Kagome! You're home! Good. I was running out of diseases," he replied.

"Well, you just made up a darn good one," she said, going upstairs into her room. She sighed as she entered her room. 'Home sweet home...' she thought. She sat at her desk and took out five different books. "I've GOT to study...now!"

***

Kagome woke, with the yellow-orange sunlight in her eyes, and an imprint of a notebook spiral spine dug into her cheek.

"Fell asleep...at my desk..." She rubbed her eyes and felt the imprint of her cheek. "Oh perfect..." She got up and left her room to go to the bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, she ran her fingertips down her branded cheek. "Ugh...bed head and this stupid thing on my cheek!"

As she looked at herself carefully, she couldn't help but see someone else in her own reflection. "Kikyo..." she said softly. She sighed and thought to herself, 'I wonder...Inu-Yasha must see her too...when he looks at me...it must bring back bad memories...my face..." She grew sad, and felt the presence of someone near her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure in the open window. She grabbed the only thing near her hand -- toothpaste.

She pivoted on her foot, and in the blink of an eye she shrieked and squirted the entire contents of the toothpaste bottle onto the strange figure. To her horror, she saw the figure of Inu-Yasha, his face now covered in white toothpaste.

"Oh," said Kagome, relieved. "It's just you, Inu-Yasha."

Inu-Yasha wiped the toothpaste off his face. "Just me?!" he said, still wiping the white stuff off his face and onto his red sleeve. "What IS this stuff?!"

"Toothpaste," said Kagome.

"You paste your teeth? What kind of era do you live in?"

"You put toothpaste on a toothbrush. You brush your teeth and the toothpaste make your breath minty and..."

"So you SQUIRTED it at ME?!" 

"Sorry! It's only been ONE day, I thought you were back in your time, I didn't know it was you!"

"Yeah, right."

"Grr...SIT!"

Inu-Yasha's eyes grew wide as his necklace reacted and he fell face first into the ground outside with a thud.

"Don't come back until AFTER the exam!!"

"...wench...I'll get--" 

"SIT!"

***

Kagome stared at the dancing flames of the fire. The fire reflected onto her face and gave it an orange tint. She felt the fire's warmth on her face, and once again she thought of Kikyo. She could feel Inu-Yasha's eyes on her, probably angry. She came back through the well after her exam, and ever since Inu-Yasha looked at her angrily.

'Mad about the toothpaste thing...' she thought.

She couldn't help but wonder if Inu-Yasha saw Kikyo's face when he looked at her, just as Kagome saw her whenever she looked in the mirror. Shippo was happily cooking marshmallows when Kagome stood up. He looked up at her with big, curious eyes.

"Kagome, where are you going?" he asked as the marshmallow on his wooden stick burnt.

"I feel like taking a walk," she replied. "Better watch your marshmallow, Shippo."

She turned to leave and felt Inu-Yasha's suspicious eyes on her. She ignored it and walked to the well. The well gave her comfort, knowing she could see Inu-Yasha whenever she wanted as well as her family.

"Leaving?" said a voice.

She knew it was Inu-Yasha. "Tell me," she said suddenly, "what you see in my face, when you look at me." She turned around to face him.

"What?" he asked. "I see a wench who had better not leave."

"Inu-Yasha, be serious!"

"I am."

"No you're NOT!"

There was an awkward silence. Inu-Yasha had a dumbfounded look on his face as Kagome sighed.

"What are you going on about?" he asked.

"Do you..." she said quietly, "...do you ever...see Kikyo when you look at me?"

There was another period of silence, but this time Inu-Yasha sighed. He turned his head to the black sky, sparkling with stars.

"Sometimes," he began. "You look a lot like her. Yet...you're not her. Sometimes...I look at you and see Kikyo...wha? WHY ARE YOU CRYING?!"

Tears sprang into Kagome's eyes. "It's just...thanks...for being honest..." and she sat down.

"AND YOU'RE CRYING OVER THAT?!" 

Kagome became annoyed and growled. "I WASN'T crying!"

"Yes you were!"

"I was crying out of frustration!"

"Frustration?!"

"NEVER MIND! I WASN'T CRYING!"

"But you just said....!!" Inu-Yasha watched as Kagome slumped over into the grass, closing her eyes.

"When I look in the mirror sometimes...I see Kikyo in my face...I was only wondering, if looking at me brought back bad memories or something."

Inu-Yasha gave a deep sigh as he walked over to her. "No. I know you're not Kikyo, believe me." The 'believe me' bit was muttered under his breath, but he said more seriously, "I know you're not her. You're Kagome."

Kagome smiled and sighed as she fell asleep. Inu-Yasha watched as she dreamt, and spoke softly to himself.

"You're perfect."

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Ok, I wrote another chapter for you all! Go read! [Sorry it took a little bit ^^;;]


	2. Chapter 2

This takes place about a week after the last chapter. [And no, I don't own any characters in this chapter either.] Read & review, please!

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Kagome stared out of her bedroom window and watched the trees move gracefully in the wind. She felt relieved after asking Inu-Yasha directly about how she looked like Kikyo. She watched a leaf unwillingly fall off a tree branch and tore her gaze from it, now looking at a blank sheet of paper. It took a few minutes, but all the reasons why she was sitting at her desk came swirling back to her. 

"Oh my gosh! I'm supposed to be studying!!" She snatched the nearest pencil and began to write frantically. Five minutes went by before she slowed down and then stopped. Sighing, she put her pencil down. "I can't study right now...I'm just...not in the mood."

She gazed out the window again, wondering why she wasn't in the mood to do any studying. Perhaps it was the way she left Inu-Yasha's time...

**FLASH BACK**

"Kagome, are you leaving?" asked a disappointed Shippo. He didn't need to ask since he already knew the answer, but he had anyway. When Kagome had her bag on (which was five times bigger than her) and marched on forward, it was clear where she was going.

"Yeah, Shippo. I'm sorry, but I have a really important test coming up soon. I need to study," she replied, knowing Shippo wasn't thrilled.

Shippo sighed. "It's ok. Did you tell Inu-Yasha?"

"That's the thing. He doesn't know. Don't tell him, ok? He'll just make a big deal about it."

"I won't tell!"

However, just as Shippo finished saying 'tell', Inu-Yasha jumped out of nowhere and landed on a tree branch.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" he hollered at Kagome.

Kagome gave Inu-Yasha her coldest stare. "I'll be back later!"

"No you--"

"SIT!!"

And when Kagome looked over before jumping down the well, Inu-Yasha landed head first into a thorn bush.

** END FLASH BACK**

Kagome sighed. She knew Inu-Yasha would be angry with her when she came back to his time. 'Maybe I should just go quickly and apologize...' she thought. She stood up and banged her fists on the desk. "Then my conscience will be clear!" she said loudly.

She heard a noise coming from her door, and saw Sota's eyes peeking from a crack. 

"Sota...?"

Sota opened the door a little and looked surprised. "You're conscience will be clear?" he asked her.

"Just....go away!" she said to him and stormed out of the room.

***

"She'll--OW! Be--OW! Care--OW! OW!"

"Inu-Yasha, be still," said and old woman named Kaede. "How did ye get all these thorns in ye?" 

Shippo answered for him. "Kagome said the magic word. Inu-Yasha just landed in the wrong place."

"That wench! How DARE---OWW! BE CAREFUL YOU OLD HAG!"

"Mind ye Inu-Yasha, these thorn will be painful to get out. Hold still."

Inu-Yasha had gone to Lady Kaede to help him get the thorns out of hard-to-reach places, since he did not trust Shippo doing that. Once all the thorns were out, Inu-Yasha moped around when Kagome walked in the door. Everyone looked at her for a second before Shippo jumped at her and hugged her.

"You're back!" Shippo said excitedly.

"Oh, what a joyous moment," Inu-Yasha said sarcastically. He glared at her and received a cold glare from her in return. 

"Well if you hadn't of tried to stop me from leaving that wouldn't of happened!" Kagome snapped back at him.

"If you didn't know, I've just spent almost the entire day taking thorns out of my skin!" he retorted.

"THEN YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TRIED TO STOP ME!" Kagome hollered back.

There was a deafening silence that followed, but Kaede was busy mixing stew over the fire. She was used to this by now, and so was Shippo. He was busying himself by looking through Kagome's back pack that she always carried. Kaede was the first to break the silence.

"I heard from Shippo that ye left for a few days, Kagome. You are early," she said.

Kagome sighed. "Yeah...I just came to...uhh..." Suddenly the idea of apologizing to Inu-Yasha didn't seem as good as it did before. "..nothing." With that, she circled around and walked out. Shippo would have followed if he had not found a chocolate bar inside Kagome's bag, which he began to study.

'Why does Inu-Yasha have to be so...argh!' she thought angrily. As she walked along, she knew someone was following her. She whirled around and faced Inu-Yasha.

"I _know _you didn't come back for nothing," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

She balled her hands into fists. "Want to know why I came back, then?" she asked.

"Yes, I DO."

"I came to...I...came to apologize is all, OK?!" she yelled.

"Then finish what you started!"

"No way! That was a really stupid thing of me to think...you're just a jerk, Inu-Yasha!"

"You're the one who landed me an a thorn bush!"

"Grrr..." she turned around and sat down, crossing her arms across her chest. She took a deep breath and looked up toward the sky. It was night by now, and she watched the twinkling of the stars. She could see way more stars in Inu-Yasha's time than her own...her time was full of lights that came from houses and streetlamps, blocking the view of some stars. Here, there was no electricity to worry about and the night sky was as clear as the day. Her thoughts were interrupted by Inu-Yasha's footsteps. Sighing, she spoke.

"Listen Inu-Yasha, I'm sorry for landing you in a thorn bush, ok?" She sighed again and was prepared for Inu-Yasha to say, 'you had better be, wench', or something along that line. To her surprise, he said nothing. 

"Ok," was all he said.

She turned to look at him, and saw that he too was dozing off into the sky. "Hey!" she said to him. "Are you even listening to me?!"

He said nothing and once more there was silence. She liked it though, anything was better than having to listen to Inu-Yasha saying something stupid.

"Nice night," Inu-Yasha commented.

"Yeah," Kagome said slowly. "You can see the stars better here."

"I know. I've seen them in your time. Like I said before, you live in the strangest era I've ever seen."

Kagome would have laughed at this absurd remark, but she was too busying dozing. In Inu-Yasha's era there were treacherous demons and all kinds of magic going on...and her time was bad?

"You can see everything here," she said quietly. "Every star."

"It's nice," he said, sitting down beside her. "And it's clear." 

Kagome smiled and leaned over on Inu-Yasha. "Yeah," she told him quietly. "It's perfect."

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There you go, another chapter. And since I've gotten requests on another chapter, I wrote one. Have fun reading it!


	3. Chapter 3

Ok, since there are lots of people who wanted me to continue with this fic, here you go! Once again, no character in this chapter and story are mine.

Read and review please! 

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Inu-Yasha walked beside the river with his hands on his head and walking two feet behind Kagome. They were being quiet, but each secretly enjoying the other's company. It had been a few days now since the thorn bush mishap and they were still on speaking terns as usual. Shippo tagged along as well, perched on Kagome's shoulder. Inu-Yasha and Shippo would occasionally shoot each other dirty looks or funny faces, and Kagome pretended not to notice.

'Men...' Kagome thought. She then looked at Shippo and Inu-Yasha, remembering that they were definitely not "men". Shippo was just a little fox demon boy and Inu-Yasha was just an immature boy. She smiled to herself as she walked along.

"What's up, Kagome?" Shippo asked, seeing the smirk grow in her face.

"Nothing," she said quietly to him. "Nothing at all."

The sun was quickly setting, and they stopped to watch the pink and orange tinted sky disappear. They quickly decided that making a camp now would be a good idea. After a few minutes, they finally got enough sticks...and branches, thanks to Inu-Yasha. They had almost a bonfire going.

Kagome sat next to the fire and felt sleepy. She and Shippo decided they wanted to roast marshmallows again. The marshmallow at the end of her stick was turning a golden brown, but she paid no notice as her eyes were drooping and tiredness swept over her body. She didn't completely wake up until she heard Shippo's high-pitched squeal.

"EEEEEEEE!! Kagome! Look!!"

She opened her eyes wide. The end of her stick was covered in flames. 'I must have fallen asleep and got it too close to the flame...' she thought.

Since her first reaction was to throw it, that was exactly what she did. Unfortunately, she didn't stop and look at where it was going...

"HEY!"

The flaming stick was hurled toward Inu-Yasha. It landed on his red, rat skinned clothing and he immediately bat out the ball of fire with his sleeve. He glared at Kagome.

Kagome smiled nervously at him and waved. "Sorry...guess it was an accident..."

"Accident! I'll give you an accident!" Inu-Yasha hollered. "I could've been burned!"

Kagome stopped smiling and frowned. "Oh please, Inu-Yasha. Your coat protects you from that. Besides, it was just a tiny flame."

"Tiny flame!" he repeated. "In your era, the would've had to send the fighters of the flame just for that!"

"Fighters of the flame?" Kagome inquired. She burst out laughing.

"What's _so _funny?"

"It's _fire fighters_, and I didn't know you actually listened to me when I told you thing about _my_ era."

Inu-Yasha stopped talking. If it were light out, you would be able to see light pink on his cheeks. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I do NOT listen to you about your corrupt time! I never have and further more--"

Inu-Yasha stole a glance at Kagome, and to his horror, she had already fallen asleep.

***

Kagome walked uncomfortably to the well with Shippo singing some song about 'brave demons'.

"The fox demons / were sometimes grave," he sang loudly. "But never were cowards / they were always brave..."

It had taken Kagome a little while, but she had bribed Inu-Yasha into letting her leave to get and aspirin for the crick in her neck. It was Saturday there anyway. Inu-Yasha was probably busy eating some of the cups of instant noodles.

Kagome hopped down the well and waved to Shippo.

"See you in a little bit!" she called to him.

"Bye, Kagome! Don't be long!" he replied.

With a sigh of disappointment, he watched Kagome disappear on the other side of the well.

***

Inu-Yasha slurped up the noodles from a Styrofoam cup loudly. He smacked his lips and sighed. He had finished all 15 cups of instant noodles, and each cup lied empty on the grass. He looked down at the mess and rubbed his stomach.

"Can't believe she gave me all these cups so quickly...didn't want them...just to spend an hour there..."

"You're a pig, Inu-Yasha," Shippo called, observing all the cups on the ground. It had taken him a little bit to find Inu-Yasha, but he finally did.

"Shut up, Shippo," Inu-Yasha growled, now feeling slightly sick.

"Had too much, eh, Inu-Yasha?"

Inu-Yasha ignored him and put his hands on his stomach, feeling quite ill. "Damn...her..."

He fell on his back, but still not fully regretting eating all the noodles. 'They were good, after all...' he thought. But the pain of feeling like he was going to explode clouded his thoughts.

"Wench..."

***

Kagome climbed out of the well and plopped her bag down. She wiped her damp face with her hand.

"Phew..." she said out loud. "What a load to carry!"

"Well, well, well..." said a dark voice from behind her.

Kagome rolled her eyes and turned around. "What now, Inu-Yasha?"

Inu-Yasha opened his eyes wide. "What now?! Do you know what I've been going through?"

Shippo crawled out from behind Inu-Yasha, and the grin he was hiding was very obvious. "Inu-Yasha was a pig and ate all those noodles at once...he's been holding his stomach for the longest time..." and he let out a snicker.

Inu-Yasha whacked Shippo hard on the head with his fist. 

"It _wasn't _funny," he growled.

Kagome sighed. "It's your own fault. You're the pig," she scolded.

"You must have poisoned it or something! I have never felt that way before!" he retorted.

"How can I poison them?! The company who makes them wraps them up!"

"Don't go blame this 'company'," Inu-Yasha said, not having the slightest idea what a 'company' was. "You gave them to me!"

They continued fighting and Shippo rolled his eyes. He turned his head and headed for Kaede's village.

***

Shippo was at Kaede's hut while Inu-Yasha and Kagome were bickering over noodles outside. Shippo heard an occasional "SIT" or "wench" and "noodles", but he had no desire to go out and hear everything.

"Those two..." Kaede said, nodding her head.

"Yeah," said Shippo. "But, it's normal."

Kaede nodded her head again and handed Shippo a hot bowl of stew. 

"They are exact opposites," he observed.

"Mmm-hmm...one's good company and the other's not," Shippo said, reminiscing past memories about having to be "forced" to stay alone with Inu-Yasha. 

Kaede smiled. She was about to speak, but was interrupt by loud voices.

"Oh! Oh! And remember the time you SQUIRTED toothpaste at me--" 

"--because you SNUCK up on me--"

"--and when you said, 'SIT' that day--"

"--which day?"

"ALL THE TIME!"

They bickered on and Shippo and Kaede went back to eating. They thought they heard a familiar 'thud', but ignored it.

Kaede shook her head. "Sometimes I really wonder about those two..."

"Yeah. But you have to admit," Shippo giggled, "They're perfect."

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^^ Chapter three, since you wanted it so much! Ok, _now _I think that's a perfect ending. [No pun intended] Review and let me know what you think! Thanks a bunch everyone, you're great!


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